Curator: Email Sign-up Tips, Color Psychology, Customer Loyalty

Weekly Buzz: We scour the headlines so you don’t have to. Sit back, relax, and enjoy our curated reads. Here’s our weekly link roundup of small business buzz, musings and muchness. A curation of the best small business talk around the web.

Product-market fit doesn’t happen by magic. Too many companies make the mistake of coming up with a brilliant idea for a product, investing huge amounts of time and money in designing and developing it, and then (maybe) getting some user feedback on it right before launching. (OpenView Labs)

Instagram will soon carry a lot more advertising. Direct-response buttons, an API for ad buying and Facebook-style targeting capabilities will give advertisers new ways to buy and will lead to rapid increases in ad spending on the photo-focused social network. (eMarketer)

Color psychology is a hot topic that’s been researched, debated, and explored by marketers, psychologists and scientists alike. And it’s not surprising—visual content is becoming increasingly important and gaining momentum in all areas of online marketing. (digital-telepathy)

When asked about the biggest challenges to multichannel marketing, nearly a quarter of respondents said they lacked the time and resources to develop and execute multichannel campaigns, and the same percentage struggled to get buy-in at the board level. (eMarketer)

It’s almost always cheaper to retain your current customers than it is to constantly acquire new customers. That’s why it’s so important to build customer loyalty and exceed expectations with every sale you make. (Shopify)

On-demand house cleaning service Homejoy, which faced lawsuits over its classification of workers as contractors, not employees, closed yesterday. While a message from Homejoy cofounder Adora Cheung on the company website mentions only “obstacles” and “unresolved challenges” as the reasons for the shutdown, elsewhere she described the lawsuits as the “deciding factor.” (Forbes)

eMarketer estimates that this year, there will be 190.5 million US smartphone users of all ages, representing 73.4% of internet users and 59.3% of the population. By 2019, the smartphone audience will reach 236.8 million, or 85.5% of internet users and 71.4% of total consumers in the country. (eMarketer)

With 11 product lines under her belt and others on the way, Frankel has built her brand one brazen step at a time. So, here’s a look at key takeaways and insights that entrepreneurs can snag from her brand playbook. (YFS Magaazine)

What do you think?

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